Creating a Profile and Presence on the Net

Authors On The Net is an association for authors interested in building a business around their book. The key to selling books, either to a publisher or directly to your audience, is building a strong ‘Author Platform.’ The free information on this site and it’s online coaching program shows writers how to create a conversation about their book and connect with their key market influencers. Oprah is not the only persuasive presence out there. There are literally hundreds of other influencers including bloggers who attract huge numbers of readers every day. As an author, it is paramount to make the appropriate connections for your target audience.

It has been my great pleasure to get to know Phil Davis, developer of Authors on the Net this last while. Listen to the two interviews I did recently with Phil. Please don’t misinterpret what I just wrote. Phil interviewed me, not visa versa.

In the first 30 minute interview, I speak on my book, In Search of Simplicity, and about living simply in a seemingly complex world.

In the second 30 minute instalment, I elaborate on the journey I’ve made to get the book published and the experiences I’ve had with promoting the book and developing an author platform so far.

In Search of Simplicity was only released in November 2008, but I’ve been humbled and touched by the feedback of readers in these early days of my baby. When one self publishes one initiates a process in conversation creation that builds over the years. This is not a short term journey.

I left my homeland, Canada, more or less for good 25 years ago. One of the unexpected bonuses of this process of publishing and creating an author profile on the net is that old friends are finding me in our remote New Zealand home. Yesterday afternoon I received a call out of the blue from an old best friend I haven’t had contact with since we each headed off to university (yikes) nearly 33 years ago. He was calling from Kazakhstan, of all places, where he is working as Director of Studies at a college. He and I have each come a long way from the days of hamming it up together in the back of Miss Grabowski’s French class. As he said, “I don’t think she ever recovered.”

So all you authors and would-be authors: check out Authors on the Net and be inspired.